Cheesy Pepper Arancini

Difficulty: Medium-Hard

Makes about 16

Never before have I attempted to make risotto, let alone arancini! To be honest I’ve never even eaten arancini as I’ve never seen a vegan-friendly one before. Well I was sick and tired of never being able to eat one of those little crispy morsels of ricey goodness, so I decided to confront my non-existent arancini fears and give it a red hot go. Now that I’ve made them, I’m going to make them again and again in different flavour combinations.

Ingredients

• 3-4 cups water
• 2 tablespoons chicken style stock powder (I use Massel)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 medium red onion, finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 handful of parsley, finely chopped
• 1 cup arborio rice
• 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon whole peppercorns, roughly chopped
• 1/3 block Cheezly (I used Blue Style), cut into 1cm cubes
• 1 cup soy milk
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup dry breadcrumbs
• Oil for deep frying

Method

1. In a saucepan, bring the stock and water to the boil. Turn down to a simmer.
2. In a large frypan, sauté the onion, garlic and parsley for a few minutes before adding the rice.
3. Add the rice and stir so that it is completed coated in the onion mixture.
4. Gradually ladle in the stock, one ladleful at a time. Stirring through and allowing the rice to absorb the liquid before adding the next batch. Once the rice is cooked through and creamy, stop adding the stock mixture.
5. Stir through the nutritional yeast, salt and pepper before allowing to chill completely.
6. Once chilled, remove the mixture from the fridge. Heap tablespoons of mixture and push a piece of Cheezly into the middle before forming into a neat ball.
7. In one shallow bowl, whisk together the soy milk and apple cider vinegar. In another shallow bowl, add the breadcrumbs.
8. One ball at a time, dip into the soy milk mixture and then into the crumbs.
9. Fill a pan or deep-fryer with oil and heat.
10. Add the arancini balls to the hot oil and cook for a couple of minutes until they are golden brown. Remove and drain on paper towel. Serve warm.